1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cargo handling and storage apparatus and more particularly to pallets for supporting loads moved by liftforks.
Pallets have come into wide spread use in industry for storage and shipping of goods, the goods generally being confined by containers, such as boxes or in bundles where the nature of the goods permits. It is usual practice to stack a selected quantity of the goods on a pallet capable of receiving the steel fingers of a forklift to move the pallet and goods from one location to another either in a warehouse or depositing them on the bed of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pallets, as conventionally used, generally comprise a wooden panel or spaced slats overlying and secured to a plurality of wooden rails. Such wooden pallets have the disadvantage, by repeated use, of being subject to splintering or cracking. A further disadvantage being the mass of the pallet and its cost of construction.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,126,843 is an example of the above described pallet formed from wood and plastic material which utilizes an adhesive for joining the components which reduces the cost of construction, such as the nailing of wooden slats and for reducing the mass of the pallet.
A one-time use, lightweight, easily assembled supply of components of a pallet is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,928,638. This pallet features overlying and underlying preformed sheets held in spaced-apart relation by a plurality of hollow pedestals, however, it is usually desired that a pallet be capable of being repeatedly reused and thus should be of sturdy construction and of relatively low mass and capable of receiving forklift fingers from any one of its four sides and in which the load may be lifted off the pallet.